(Sacramento) Equality California announced that it will honor Dr. Swati Rao with the State Farm Good Neighbor Award at its 2014 Sacramento Equality Awards on Monday, March 10. Equality California Announces State Farm Good Neighbor Honoree for 2014 Sacramento Equality Awards

(Sacramento) Equality California announced that it will honor Dr. Swati Rao with the State Farm Good Neighbor Award at its 2014 Sacramento Equality Awards on Monday, March 10.

Dr. Rao is a resident physician at the University of California, Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. Dr. Rao teaches medical students how to provide culturally sensitive care to transgender patients in a hormone clinic run by the Gender Health Center and UC Davis that serves Sacramento's transgender community. She also lectures and facilitates workshops with medical students on issues of diversity, discrimination and health care disparities affecting LGBT people, women and minorities. Dr. Rao has also served on the LGBT Curriculum Committee for medical student education, in which she worked with other residents and faculty to incorporate LGBT issues in the medical student curriculum, and the Diversity Advisory Committee for the UC Davis Psychiatry Department, in which she participated in expanding the psychiatry resident curriculum to include issues of gender, sexuality and class in addition to ethnic identity.

"Dr. Swati Rao embodies the true meaning of a good neighbor,” said John O’Connor, executive director of Equality California. “In order to make an impact and encourage lasting change, we must ‘teach the teachers,’ educate future leaders in our community and update our institutions — and this is exactly what Swati does.”

Dr. Rao was chosen from a pool of outstanding candidates nominated by members of the public. During this year’s Sacramento Equality Awards, Rao will receive the award alongside other honorees, including Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom.

“Equality California is very proud to honor Swati with the State Farm Good Neighbor award for her service and inspirational advocacy on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people,” said O’Connor.

Each year, Equality California recognizes individuals and organizations that have made an impact on the movement to secure full and lasting equality for LGBT people at its annual Equality Awards — a series of formal galas and cocktail events held in San Francisco, San Diego, Palm Springs, Los Angeles and Sacramento. Past honorees have included Adam Lambert, Dolores Huerta, Arianna Huffington, Attorney General Kamala Harris and California Governor Jerry Brown.

The 2014 Equality Awards are presented by AT&T and sponsored by State Farm Insurance and Southwest Airlines. For more information about the Equality Awards, visit www.eqcaawards.org/sacramento. For tickets or sponsorship information, contact Jack Lorenz at jack@eqca.org or by calling 310.266.0502.

Equality California (EQCA) is the largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender advocacy organization in California. For more than a decade, Equality California has strategically moved California from a state with extremely limited legal protections for LGBT individuals to a state with some of the most comprehensive protections in the nation. Equality California has partnered with legislators to successfully pass 96 pieces of pro-equality legislation and continues to advance equality through legislative advocacy, electoral work, public education and community empowerment. www.eqca.org